Grim's Hall

Range Report: Halloween Edition

I took a little time today to sight in my "new" rifle. It's only new to me; it was manufactured in 1966, based on a design that was already quite old at the time. It's a Winchester Model 94, in .30-30.

The local rifle range is set up with twenty-five yard, sixty yard, and hundred yard target holders. I was planning on using the twenty-five yard targets, as this thing has only the original iron sights on it. Since my primary reason to have it is home defense, I plan on replacing them with a ghost ring, but for today I just wanted to get the feel of the rifle.

However, deer season is on us, so I didn't end up getting my choice of ranges. Unless I wanted to wait a long time to shoot, the sixty yard targets were all there was. Too, all the people sighting in for deer season meant that I could shoot for only one thirty-minute segment. Taking time to get to know the rifle, that means I only spent fifteen rounds before it was time to leave.

I had two other difficulties at the range. The first was that the staple gun jammed up, so I only got the top of the target stapled to the target holders. This meant that the steady breeze was flapping my target around a bit at the bottom. The other problem was that I hadn't thought to dig out my field glasses, so I couldn't tell how accurate my shooting was -- at sixty yards, a hole .3 inches wide is invisible to me unless you get one of those splash targets, and all I had was basic white paper with black rings.

All that said, I put all fifteen rounds on paper, but it sights very high at sixty yards. I can only assume the previous owner sighted it in for longer distances, as I was fairly well trained in the basics of riflery and I'm sure my part of it was right. I didn't get anything within two inches of the X ring, although it was otherwise grouped pretty well.

No doubt I just need to apply some Kentucky windage, until I get around to replacing the sights.